Towards a Design
Action Plan for Wales
Executive Summary _
It’s not about what government can do for design but what design can do for
government: Towards a Design Action Plan for Wales?
On 22 June 2018, PDR and Satori Lab hosted an exploratory workshop to look
at the drivers and barriers to the more strategic use of design in Wales to
work towards an action plan for the Welsh economy and the society.
Design is a vibrant sector in the UK generating £85.2bn in gross value added
in 2016 (equivalent to 7% of UK GVA) (Design Council, 2018). However, in the
Design Economy report, Wales is a place with one of the lowest proportions
of design-intensive firms in the UK - only 1,705 in 2017 (although this is an
increase of 40% from 2010). Nevertheless, we should be encouraged that
this trend is changing and that total design turnover is growing. What might
we be able to do to continue this upwards trajectory? Design is recognised
as a driver of innovation in the Innovation Strategy for Wales as well as for
wellbeing in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. How can we more
effectively integrate design into public and private sector activities?
A number of countries and regions across Europe and around the world
have developed Design Action Plans. Typically, design stakeholders make
an economic and/or social case for design to government who may collect
further evidence of design usage and appoint an expert group to develop
design actions in collaboration with users and stakeholders. A proportion
of those actions are then adopted into a strategy document. Stakeholders
in Wales have been successful over the years in engaging with the Welsh
Government to integrate design into innovation policy and programmes.
Design is also aligned with the objectives of the Wellbeing of Future
Generations Act. Although the design sector and the use of design in Wales
is growing, there is no government-led Design Action Plan. Design is all
about challenging entrenched approaches. Although we would like a Welsh
Government-led Design Action Plan for Wales perhaps it is up to the sector
to jointly define the priorities and a set of actions, which collectively it could
achieve in collaboration with government. The ‘Towards a Design Action
Plan for Wales’ workshop was one step in a longer journey towards building
critical mass in the design space both within industry and the public sector.
We have used a design approach to build consensus among the small
number of participants from across the Design Ecosystem in Wales. Based
on the needs of the stakeholders across the Design Ecosystem we identified
a set of emerging actions upon which we can build and gain greater input
and endorsement. There appears to be appetite for a sector-led Design
Action Plan for Wales that is sufficiently ambitious to enhance the use
of design in the private and public sectors but which is also realistic and
measurable. Some may criticise the ‘short-termism’ of Design Action
Plans as they can become outdated almost as soon as they are published;
however, we see this as a prototype, a first iteration, a first step in a longerterm ambition to integrate design more holistically within Welsh policies
and business life. The first ideas from the workshop focused on what the
participants perceived as the most pressing issues – design education, design
awareness and promotion, and design in government. Proposed actions
ranged from upskilling design graduates in service design, to showcasing
best design practice and running design pilots in Welsh Government. We
intend to establish a committee of advocates prepared to develop, implement
and monitor the Design Action Plan for Wales. The committee of design
stakeholders would further work on those actions in order to create a
tangible, targeted and realistic set of tasks and KPIs.
The actions have been co-designed by stakeholders from the design sector,
industry, academia, representation bodies, Welsh Government and local
government and we should all take ownership of the implementation. We
should elaborate them further, monitor our progress against the targets and
capture impact if we are to secure wider support from other stakeholders and
Welsh Government. We want this to be a ‘living’ Design Action Plan where
the targets are reviewed and revised regularly in collaboration with users and
stakeholders. This is a call for actors who might be prepared to be part of a
community hoping to develop, implement and monitor a Design Action Plan
to enhance the use of design in Wales.
Dr Anna Whicher
Head of Design Policy
PDR – Cardiff Metropolitan University
Workshop transcript
The Design Action Plan workshop focused on two participatory exercises and
an icebreaker activity exploring the perception of design among 24 participants
who represented small and large businesses, design agencies, academia,
local government and different departments of the Welsh Government.
Icebreaker
Workshop participants were asked to introduce themselves and answer the
question of what design means to them. They could choose as many as they
wanted from five suggested answers and also propose their own definitions.
For the majority of participants design is a problem-solving and decisionmaking activity, a means to improve users’ experience and a creative process.
Other definitions of design by workshop participants include: (Design is…)
“everywhere and for everyone”, “Innovating & experimenting to do things
that deliver outcomes for people”, and “far more important than the general
population acknowledges”. The exercise revealed a broad spectrum of
application of design (“everywhere and for everyone”) and flagged potential
problems in building a common vision and communicating design (“too many
things to too many different people”).
20
A means to improve users' experience
18
A creative process
16
The creation of styling artefacts
11
A marketing strategy
5
Other:
11
Too many things to too many different people
That can be applied to public & private sector
Everywhere
Outcomes
A creative process
For everyone
A problem solving and decision making activity
The creation of styling artefacts
A marketing strategy
Aesthetically delighting citizens while smoothing out the creases with them
Theft
A problem solving and decision making activity
A means to improve users’ experience
Far more important than general population acknowledge
Changing things - hopefully for the better
Activity 1 _
The first hands-on activity focused on identifying the barriers to and enablers
of the more strategic use of design in Wales in relation to eight design
stakeholder groups:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
design support bodies,
design practitioners,
education sector,
businesses,
government,
public sector,
third sector,
general public.
By far the most barriers and opportunities related to the public sector and
policy-makers what perhaps reflected the interests of the people in the
room. Many remarks were concerned with the discipline of service design as
much needed but lacking skill in Wales.
Design Support Bodies
Design Support Bodies category refers to organisations and institutions that
promote or support design through campaigns or programmes of training or
financial support. According to the workshop participants, a growing trend
towards non-technological drivers of innovation gives design a central place
in many funding and training programmes across Europe. Recognizing the
value of iterative and experimental processes creates a safe space for testing
ideas and prototyping. There are also multiple case studies of successful
design projects and their impact on economy and society that should be
communicated to decision makers and wider audience.
On the barriers side however, it was remarked that there too few good
examples from Wales, the main players are not collaborating and the design
voice is not strong enough. Design is an eligible cost in Welsh Government
innovation support programmes, but without an adequate promotion, it
remains ‘invisible’ and underutilized as a tool of innovation. The lack of
awareness of design and its disciplines raised a question whether the key
players in this stakeholder group understand the design language. It was
also pointed out that with a small design sector in Wales; there is lack of
certain design expertise, as for instance service design expertise, leading to
a concern whether the supply would be able to meet the demand for design
services promoted through support programmes.
Barriers
_ Design ‘invisible’ with Welsh Government innovation support programmes
_ Lack of connection between players in the network
_ Presence & promotion
_ Demand / Supply
_ Lack of awareness and skills in service design
_ Fix it for people – helping culture
_ ‘Design’ making claims for everything
_ A lack of positive examples of use – war stories
_ Can the right players understand the design language?
_ Is there enough voice, or convincing voice saying that design is useful?
_ Which design discipline?
_ Too few examples (domestically in Wales) of successes and swings
Drivers
_ Funding for non-tech innovation
_ Showcase good design
_ Enlighten the decision makers
_ Wider communication & knowledge of good service design examples
_ Design, redesign and standards need to work together
_ Creating a safe space for rapid prototyping
_ The design sector does not appear vibrant to external (Welsh) world
Design Practitioners
Design Practitioners are defined as companies or individuals that provide any
type of design services including tangible (e.g. product design) and intangible
(e.g. design management/thinking) consulting to private and public sectors.
On the enablers side, the workshop participants identified good quality
of design schools teaching the future practitioners, openness of design
practitioners and willingness to cooperate and learn new approaches and
techniques.
Yet still, it was remarked that the talent pool is limited and there are no
champions among Welsh design practitioners. Furthermore, there is too
much jargon created around a difficult enough to define word ‘design’ that
causes more confusion and disjointed message. The services on offer are
fragmented with limited expertise in strategic design what leads to a question
of who has got the skills, knowledge and expertise to shape new design in
Wales?
Barriers
_ Who’s got the skills / knowledge / expertise to shape new design
(and those 3 aren’t all the same)?
_ We aren’t good at measuring impact and talking about good outcomes from
Service Design (also Design Support Bodies)
_ Diversity of services
_ B2B strategy
_ So many types of design - Too much jargon
_ Is design too difficult / loaded a word? But what else?
_ Design is still more of a thing rather than a process for innovation
_ Lack of a robust domestic talent pool
_ Lack of champions - how do we get the champions to have the right
amount of power?
_ Resistance when design calls into question the validity of ‘pet projects’
_ People skills – bringing people along
_ Understanding of legal infrastructure
_ Too many experts not enough expertise
_ Does design properly recognise other disciplines’ input?
_ Design understanding the practical implementation challenges
Drivers
_ Wales has some good schools of design (but service design need to raise its
profile vs. product design)
_ Access to ‘taster days’ with designers to show potential
_ Sharing when things don’t work
_ There are suppliers in the market
_ Access to knowledge – the frameworks & processes are done. No need to
invent new wheels. Just to learn.
_ Concepts of value & perception changes
_ The need to bring together broader perspectives & skill sets – to a problem
_ Off the sheet solutions
_ Co-operative movement
Education Sector
Primary, secondary or higher education institutions involved in teaching or
research related to design are the education sector component of the design
ecosystem.
Design suffers from its misunderstanding and connotation with ‘art’, which
is undervalued and not taught enough in primary and secondary schools.
There is also lack of design teaching in non-design higher-level education,
such as for instance business studies. This might be partly down to lack
of available expertise, where service design was mentioned as a deficient
capability. At the same time, it was remarked that design graduates in Wales
do not consider service design as a career option. On a more general level,
lack of investment in education, skills and creativity poses a threat to greater
application of design.
Most of the drivers of the more strategic use of design in education in Wales
identified by workshop participants directly correspond to the barriers and
seem to be a recommendation for change. Strong governmental commitment
to art and design education, teaching environment and approaches that
are conducive to creativity and innovation, and inclusion of design in other
subjects’ education would drive development of design in Wales. Again,
service design was named as a discipline that particularly needs to be
advanced.
Barriers
_ Perception of art / design in education sector ‘Bright’ kids do ‘science’ not ‘art’
_ Career advice in schools don’t understand what design is…
_ Designers / Grads don’t see Service Design as a career option (I studied
Product Design)
_ School system doesn’t value & embed design in secondary school
_ It isn’t part of non-design degree level education
_ Curriculum (vs STEM)
_ It isn’t taught, like maths & Welsh in schools
_ Knowledge & understanding or even awareness that this way of thinking
exists (among all stakeholders)
_ GCSE & A Level & drive for targets limit the capacity for developing design
literate students
_ We are not training enough properly qualified service designers (London &
Scotland are)
_ Lack of real world application for students / pupils
_ Lack of expertise, skills & investment in skills
_ Getting demographically representative input is expensive & hard
Drivers
_ Strong governmental commitment to arts education / creativity
_ Greater value attached to design within education system
_ More support for creative children in school - encouraging creativity &
innovation in play
_ Better understanding that design is a career option
_ Design education in other subjects
_ Service design integrated into more traditional design degrees (e.g.
product, industrial)
_ Accessible, understandable & rigorous research about what works
_ Welsh schools can get a grant to fund arts in school
_ Design graduates feeding into industry
Businesses (Private sector)
Businesses (companies and individuals) create demand for design services
by commissioning design work. Their approach to design, from ‘no design’
to ‘design as strategic asset’, affects the overall quality of design offer in the
region or country.
Awareness of design and its economic impact is one of the main barriers
to more strategic use of design in businesses in Wales. Businesses often
perceive design as a lengthy and expensive process with uncertain outcomes,
and as a result prefer to invest in technology neglecting user needs and
wants. Insight from design process may lead to complete change of a
business model what many change-adverse firms fear.
There are however, innovative sectors that drive user-centric rhetoric in
business. New generation of entrepreneurs set up start-ups in response
to customer needs, crowdsource product/service ideas and test potential
solutions with users. There is also a growing number of case studies of
design value and the ‘prototyping culture’ re-defines business failure as a
learning experience.
Barriers
_ Lack of understanding of what constitutes design
_ Lack of understanding by most people as to the value of design but aware of
design and its cost!?
_ Small business not able to afford specialists in all areas e.g. design
_ Lack of time – busy doing the day job
_ Investment in change that may result in the unknown (intangible)
_ Companies focused on the ‘tech’ not on the user perspective / need
_ Not taking a user perspective on product & service development
_ Not one prescribed toolkit, there are lots
_ Design makes us stop & think (delays!)
_ Location – where we talk about design to make a difference
_ Who your audience is when you ‘talk design’!
_ Providing evidence to demonstrate the value of investment “win hearts & minds”
_ Current eco-system
Drivers
_ Other sectors driving expectations - new business models are emerging
_ Competing globally without needing global assets
_ Evidence of impact
_ Embracing failure as a positive learning experience – what did we learn?
_ Sharing common experiences (positives and negatives)
_ Change in the rhetoric in business to user-centric
_ More evangelism – to users & opinions more ‘stories’ – less case studies, in
a language and tone that’s better understood
_ Using innovation hubs to incubate an eco-system – SME’s tech, etc.
_ A younger business person
_ Growth in entrepreneurial start-up companies
_ Bringing companies, innovators, researchers etc. to some
sectoral problems
_ Crowdfunding idea sharing
_ Competitive advantage
_ Fluid consumers – expectations
_ Shared spaces (interdisciplinary)
Government
Government category encompasses all governmental bodies that support
design through programmes of training or financing, and at the same time
are buyers of design services. Government and public sector are traditionally
prone to criticism. Those two components of the Welsh Design Ecosystem
received the biggest attention from the workshop participants.
There is a general perception of the government as a place that is
inhospitable for change and innovation – workshop participants mentioned
barriers such as lack of will, ambition and strategy, risk-aversion, inherent
and self-sustaining bureaucratic processes and systems. This attachment to
the ‘old ways’ of governing and making policy results in silo-ed departments
that are not used to working in multidisciplinary, agile teams. Again, lack of
awareness and understanding of what design is and what it can deliver was a
recurring theme among the barriers.
Shrinking resources pose a challenge for capacity and self-innovating
while doing the day-to-day work. However, on the other hand, austerity
requirements could be a perfect opportunity to completely re-think and reorganise current processes. There is a growing community of innovators in
the government that implement improvement projects with methods such as
design, digital, agile, open innovation. This creates a bank of success stories
but also learnings from the pilots that have not achieved what they intended,
gradually changing the culture of government towards experimentation,
openness, and citizen-centricity. Among the enablers, it was proposed to
create a Welsh Government Design Team.
Barriers
_ Risk aversion / Traditionalism
_ Will / ambition
_ Defensiveness against new subjects that aren’t well understood – it’s scary
_ Political pressure for a one size / no postcode variation service
_ Process focus & safe implementation, not innovation
_ Embedded systems / bureaucracy / process / structure / police ‘cycle’
_ Lack of design knowledge at leadership level - There is no strategy
_ Lack of understanding of the benefits of design & how accessible it is
_ Funds / budgets
_ Capacity
_ KPIs
_ Returns on investment unknown
_ Easier to cut than change
_ Who should / can drive it? Individuals / Organisations? - Currently reliant on
a small number of individuals
_ Best practice does not travel
_ It is happening but not called design
_ There is research into opinion, but designers aren’t part of it. It’s
statisticians doing it.
_ Many policies, may not be joined up – ‘Design Silo’
_ Lack of habit of genuine multidisciplinary team working (design, policy,
tech, delivery – working together)
_ No-one has responsibilities
_ Professional bodies get in the way
_ Jargon – introduce by stealth
_ Misappropriated / misunderstood language – service design, agile
_ Agile not agile
_ Confusion between traditional consultants & focus groups with proper
ethnography & user research
Drivers
_ GDS agenda
_ Lots of case studies of good practice and success stories –
DVLA, ONS Data Viz…
_ Small scale innovation funds that do not expect 100% success rate
_ R&D funding accelerators innovation funds
_ Crowd-based innovation funding from Gov
_ Sweep away nationally defined KPIs that drive bad service
_ Integrating designers into organisational strategy
_ Proper multidisciplinary teams have a seat for designers
_ More expertise is needed in decommissioning services that don’t work
(Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction)
_ Trialling / pilots (of policy etc.)
_ The use of user stories in agile project management forces those designing
to put themselves in the user’s shoes
_ Agile project management supplanting waterfall
_ Space for learning / failing / narratives
_ Austerity
_ Individuals who ‘get it’ then encouraging its use in their organisation
_ Longer term thinking / lens & awareness of other practices
_ Results that speak for themselves - financial benefits of Service Design
_ Changing world
_ Citizen google docs
_ Open Gov - increasing transparency and accountability
_ A culture of rewarding innovation
_ Create a Welsh Gov design team
_ Being innovative seen as the route to risk reduction
_ Govenrment working in creative spaces
Public Sector
In the public sector, understood as non-governmental and non-designoriented organisations, which are funded by the government (e.g. NHS) and
commission any type of design services, workshop participants identified
a lot of barriers that correspond to ones existing in the government.
Similarly, there is an intrinsic aversion to risk and change, outdated systems
and limited knowledge of design and its potential. Budget cuts lead to
understaffed institutions where overworked staff struggle to improve
processes while providing uninterrupted services. There is not enough
internal capability for design and innovation in public sector. Procurement
processes are not fit for commissioning design services and tailored usercentred solutions and favour ‘off-the-shelf’, ‘one-size-fits-all’ products and
services. Designers can be perceived as ‘stylists’ (“Design is a department in
a web team that makes HTML templates that we must use”) or outsiders and
collaboration between them and subject matter experts may be difficult.
On the enablers’ side is the pressure to do more with less that requires
public sector to look for new approaches and solutions and within that design
becomes increasingly popular as a method of innovation focused on user
needs. More and more public sector innovators share their knowledge, skills
and cases of good practice and lead by example. More services are released
in beta versions and tested with users. From small and discreet pilot projects,
design is increasingly being applied to solving bigger and more complex
challenges.
Barriers
_ Adverse to change – ‘this is how we’ve always done it’
_ Risk – new approach. Don’t like failure. No safe space to fail.
_ Organisational culture inc. risk aversion
_ Lack of awareness of what design is
_ Lack of awareness of strategic use of design in Welsh Gov & public sector
_ Too many ‘different ways of working’ with ever decreasing budget
_ Overworked public servants doing the wrong things
_ Design teams not integrated into orgs (seen as a separate thing)
_ System bias towards buying in ‘off the shelf’ / one size fits all solutions
_ Desire to do it quickly > desire to do it well
_ Don’t do it properly; ‘Perpetual discovery’ ‘Perpetual beta’
_ We don’t focus on defining the problem to solve
_ Paternalistic attitude (c/f consultative)
_ Spending cash in unproven areas - design isn’t always part of the
plan & budget
_ Lack of R&D funding
_ Not given the space / time / funding to experiment with design
_ Design is a department in a web team that makes HTML templates that we
must use
_ Lack of incentives for public servants to make things better
_ Fear of potential costs / failure to appreciate opportunity cost
_ Not adopted as top down approach
_ Barriers between organisations
_ Reaction to austerity is retrenchment
_ No ‘route to market’ for public sector innovation
_ The comfort of existing process – buying IBM
_ Design tends to be commissioned for discrete projects, rather than
addressing complex system
_ Complexity (+ criticality) of legacy systems
_ Mismatch between subject matter expertise and design principle and skills
_ Dunning-Kruger effect – don’t realise how little they know
_ Procurement systems aren’t aligned to design phases
_ Investment in service design doesn’t necessarily yield increased capability
in institutions
_ Gov & public sector lack the in house capability to do this stuff, so it’s scary!
_ Too many good design case studies are never communicated
_ Understanding what design is
_ Dunning-Kruger effect – don’t realise how little they know
_ Design is not seen as about the service
_ Procurement systems aren’t aligned to design phases
_ Investment in service design doesn’t necessarily yield increased capability
in institutions
_ Gov & public sector lack the in house capability to do this stuff, so it’s scary!
_ Too many good design case studies are never communicated
Drivers
_ More celebrating of innovation
_ Pressure to do more for less
_ Skills sharing – workshops, resource packs etc.
_ There are role models like GDS, Manchester Council…
_ The publication of beta products / services encourages user input
_ Blockchain is being used in more contexts
_ Innovation is on the agenda increasingly
_ Lack of funding drive change
_ Improvement agendas
_ Public sector reform
_ Inspiration from other industry sectors
_ Fear of becoming obsolete
_ Peer pressure / competitors
_ Recognition of problems of siloisation – search for alternatives
_ Public health
_ Agile working (flexible working)
_ Being able to access more / better people
Third Sector
Organisations that are neither public sector nor private sector and that
are non-design-oriented fall under the ‘Third sector’ category. It includes
voluntary and community organisations such as charities, associations etc.
This type of organisations are set up to serve their ‘users’ and place them
at the heart of what they do. Charities often try out new approaches and
innovative methods to engage communities in co-creation and co-delivery of
solutions they need. There are many examples of good practice in this regard.
On the other hand, workshop participants believe that so-called ‘grantosis’,
i.e. project funding dependency, threats the more strategic use of design
in third sector. Funding requirements do not encourage organisations to
innovate, because they usually replicate old models. There is also a question
of design and innovation capacity in the third sector organisations.
Barriers
_ Grant Funding - ‘Here is money to do something the same way’
_ Existing power structures in public sector & between users & 3rd sector
_ Capacity
_ 3rd Sector innovation value not recognised
_ Grant system that doesn’t work in Wales
Drivers
_ Organisations which say they put citizens / customers at the heart of what
they do – actually then doing it
_ Community designed solutions & delivery
_ Community reconnection
_ Charities are using personal storytelling because of the personal
connection
_ Nesta / Y Lab integrate design into their programmes
_ Link design into existing policy future generations areas e.g. PIE
(psychologically informed environments) ACES (adverse childhood
experiences) in housing context
General public
The design ecosystem is complemented by the general public, namely
members of the society who are not directly involved with design but can
benefit from design individually or in-group (e.g. older adults, children, etc.).
In the current network economy, people have instant access to information
and can always directly express their opinions about products and services.
That allows them to make decisions that are more informed and gives them
more confidence as the customers. Often they want to be actively involved in
co-creation process and customize the product to their needs. At the time
when technological advances make all the products do their job equally well,
it is the experience, fulfilment of needs and emotional factors that make the
difference. In this context, design becomes increasingly popular and more
and more people have better understanding of it.
On the other hand, design popularity can be a downside, when it is associated
only with over-styled or expensive products. Design understanding among
the general public can be very superficial. Good design is often ‘invisible’, is
when things work as people expect them to work, hence can be difficult to
identify and appreciate. People are inclined to stick to their routines and may
not want to switch to better designed products or services because they are
used to do things in certain ways. Workshop participants identified also the
demographics, low expectations and disinterest as potential barriers to more
strategic use of design in Wales.
Barriers
_ Language of design not well understood outside of design ‘circles’
_ Ignorance: What design is? What value it could bring?
_ Value perception ‘designer vs free of charge’
_ Disinterest
_ Low expectations
_ Design is ‘invisible’ when it is ‘good’
_ Demographics - generational lag
_ Rely on services
_ Familiar with existing process - fear of change
_ Skills
_ Poor brand of service design
_ Knowing who is responsible for design at a strategy level
Drivers
_ Better understanding of design by all
_ Individuals & communities taking more responsibility
_ Individuals & practitioners can be co-producers: neither should be
passive roles
_ Louder public voice - social media make feedback public
_ Customer demand
_ Citizens have higher expectations because they know what good looks like
_ Design is trendy (could be a barrier form the other perspective)
_ Age & expectation better than expected
_ Brexit
_ Give people easier access to their data
_ Perception of personal data security
_ Shift in perception of public risk
Activity 2 _
The second activity focused on ideating policy priorities for more strategic
use of design in Wales. Based on the insights from the previous exercise,
workshop participants discussed how to capitalise on the drivers and
overcome the barriers. In groups, participants discussed the most promising
ideas, and developed an initial delivery plan of how, who, to whom and by
when.
Broadly speaking, three main priorities were proposed to mainstream
design-led innovation and make it a more strategic resource in Wales.
Promotion and awareness raising activities
To tackle a recurring barrier of general design ignorance, it was proposed
to develop and implement a design promotion campaign. The action
would include an in-depth mapping of design activity in Wales to identify
underperforming services that can be made better. By improving the
understanding of design, the demand for design services should increase.
Promotional activities to increase design awareness were present in
proposals from three groups.
Service design as a norm in government and public sector
A dedicated promotion and incentivisation of use of service design in
government was suggested in the form of building a community, organising
showcases of best practice and workshops, and development of service
design guidelines and toolkits. Design-led innovation should be seen as a
route to achievement of the ambitions of the Wellbeing of Future Generations
Act. This idea appeared in three groups.
Education
Future ready design curriculum, able to adapt to emerging challenges
should be developed for all levels of education from primary to continuous
professional development. This proposal also include a postulate to upskill
designers with new and emerging design methods needed on the market.
Improvement of design education featured in proposals from two groups.
Priorities and Actions for Wales _
What
What are the priorities?
Promotion of Design
Map what’s really happening
Incentivise new solutions that
include service design
How
How do you maximise a driver
or overcome a barriers?
Celebrating failure
Successful case studies
Use professional PR & Media
Promote better understanding of
design
Drop design jargon
Meet government procurement &
grant managers to show benefits
of specifying service design in
spec
Who
Who could implement it?
Media
LGA & Cabinet Office (spaces to
share good practice)
Local Government
Think allied sectors
Brave individuals (e.g. CEO)
followed by a professional body
Encourage Government / Public
Service to procure via competition
(SBRI) Collaborative co-design
Have a showcase
We need a set of service design
guidelines (for procurement e.g.)
to model expectations
Education:
Primary
Secondary
HE, Post Grad
In-work
Online capacity building
(accredited)
Practical & Assessment element
Feedback loop on education gaps
Reignite dormant networks
Politics:
PR
Understanding
Action
* Digital Design
* Process Design
* Service Design
* Design for Policy
* Graphic Design
Map network of players
Identify a champion
(commissioner for future
generations)
Stimulate political will
Showcase event / festival
Give them their own experience
Advocates for implementation
Research findings
Sector & HE
Revisit past players (Think Ark
(social design collective))
Engage new blood
WLGA
Collective of design reps
Design support bodies
Political responsible for digital?
To Whom
Who is going to benefit?
People of Wales and beyond
When
When could it be
implemented?
By Dec 2020
Measure
How to measure the success?
That service design is part of
every project plan
Higher number of service
designer in employment in Wales
(after Ireland)
Implementation of programmes
(from workshops etc.)
Stimulating demand for design
expertise in Private & Public
Sectors
How to procure design & write a
design brief
Train the trainers
Service design in Government
Citizens
Students
Public Sector processes
Shorter term than changes in
curriculum
Max impact – minimum timescale
Start small & expand
Designers in industry &
Government
Growth of design sector demand
Satisfaction
People start to procure things
differently – challenged focused
not solution focused
Increased awareness
Application of design
Priorities and Actions for Wales _
What
What are the priorities?
Raise awareness of the value
of service design in Welsh
Government
Define what service design is &
communicate
Identify underperforming services
that can be made better
Future ready design curriculum
– able to adapt to emerging
challenges
Design led innovation being the
norm
How
How do you maximise a driver
or overcome a barriers?
Who
Who could implement it?
To audit the best practice & use of
design & communicate more effectively
in Welsh Government
Identify areas where people are
passionate about & make better
Identify pilots to embed service design
into culture of Welsh Government
Identify & share use of service design
currently in Welsh Government
Identify opportunities with large reach –
more citizens involved & benefit
Use annual Welsh Government awards
to recognise service design – new
awards in service deign ‘kudos’
Better communicate true value of
service design
Develop service design training then
toolkit to embed within all Welsh
Government departments
Upskill designers for industry role
‘industry ready’
Integrate design thinking into project
management toolkit
Welsh Government innovation
team (internal resource) – who?
Do they know about Service
Design?
Identify champions to lead on
development of service design
Champion acts as advocate for
service design – link between
decision makers
Endorsement from Permanent
Secretary
Increasing availability & visibility
of service design skills to procure
Gathering the evidence
Getting Local Government to buy
into the approach
Joining up procurement
Dog fooding
Increasing the understanding
of design, which will increase
demand
Future Wellbeing Act - is design
led innovation seen as a route to
achievement?
YES unique to Wales
Design promo bodies
Design education sector
Government innovation team
Design industry
National procurement service
(role in building capacity)
Procurement managers
Policy people
To Whom
Who is going to benefit?
When
When could it be
implemented?
Measure
How to measure the success?
Welsh society – citizens of Wales,
people of Wales
Service ‘owners’ in Welsh
Government = ‘better’ services
Welsh Government employees
+3 months: Develop the ‘case’ for
service design to be embedded in
innovation system
6-18 months: Develop & deliver
service design training & toolkit
programme
+18 months: evaluate activity &
impact ‘outcomes’
Impact on wellbeing of citizens
(longitudinal study)
Have service design champions
been appointed?
Service design awards set up
Service designers
Citizens getting a better deal
Service user
Service delivery agents
Proactive development on
long-term – so benefit: future
generations
People that have to prioritise
Public Services
Simple changes include:
Proper ‘enough time’ timescales
3-5 years
After Brexit
All services can state (& evidence)
the actual user need
What Next? _
Action plans help to effectively accomplish strategic goals by identifying
specific and detailed steps that in coherent and consistent way support the
overall vision. It is crucial to engage stakeholders and interest groups in the
development of the plan to ensure that the actions are feasible and can be
implemented by or for the stakeholders.
Practising what we preach, we took a collaborative design approach
to exploring the parameters of a Design Action Plan for Wales. During
the workshop involving representatives from Welsh Government, local
government, the design sector, industry, academic and representation bodies,
we built consensus on what are the main barriers for and drivers of more
strategic use of design in Wales and brainstormed policy proposals. The
first ideas for action focused on what the participants perceived as the most
pressing issues – design education, design awareness and promotion, and
design-led innovation in government. Proposed actions ranged from upskilling
design graduates in service design, to showcasing best design practice and
running design pilots in Welsh Government. The ‘Towards a Design Action
Plan for Wales’ workshop was one step in a longer journey towards building
critical mass in the design space both within industry and the public sector.
We aim to develop a stakeholder-led ‘living’ Design Action Plan that is
ambitious, yet realistic and measurable. We see this as a prototype, a first
iteration, a first step in a longer-term ambition to integrate design more
holistically within Welsh policies and day-to-day activities. Therefore, these
initial proposals can be further discussed and built upon to gain greater input
and endorsement. Furthermore, we are taking an experimental approach to
developing and implementing a Design Action Plan. The Welsh Government
will not be making any additional finances available rather the implementation
will be a collective effort by players in the Design Ecosystem that are inspired
to action.
To achieve this, we intend to establish a committee of design advocates
prepared to further elaborate the proposals, help to implement them, monitor
progress against the targets and capture impact if we are to secure wider
support from other stakeholders and Welsh Government. We want this to
be a ‘living’ Design Action Plan where the targets are reviewed and revised
regularly. An evaluation exercise is planned take place in 2021 to assess the
outcomes.
We are seeking support for this initiative from all interested actors. Join us
on the journey Towards a Design Action Plan for Wales.
PDR / Cardiff Met
Manchester Met
Satori Lab
Dr Anna Whicher
Prof Andy Walters
Piotr Swiatek
Jo Ward
Prof Martyn Evans
Dr Jea Na
Esko Reinikainen
Jo Carter